Harmless Bruise vs. Dangerous Blood Clot: the Difference?
On one hand, a benign pink mark from trauma can resemble the pink or “red” of a blood clot.
A harmless bruise can also be large and quite ugly, while a blood clot that looks like a mere dark pink area can lead to a fatal condition. (more…)
Can High Blood Pressure Ever Be Harmless?
Why can some people have uncontrolled high blood pressure for so long without any problems?
Can it ever NOT harm the body (e.g., the person is fit and healthy otherwise in that they don’t smoke, aren’t overweight, do exercise)?
Trim & Toned vs. Obesity: Getting Your Motivation
“Fit Mom” Maria Kang apologizes for promoting an “unnatural body standard,” yet if anything’s unnatural, it’s obesity, and this IS being promoted by many body positive influencers.
The human body was not meant to carry a hundred pounds of excess fat, and especially 200 pounds. THIS is what’s unrealistic, not a lean fit body.
The extreme commonality of obesity does not make it normal.
If we were to travel back in time, we’d see that by far, the most unnatural body “type” was that of obesity.
This is why generations ago, the “fat lady” in a traveling circus was considered a main attraction.
The paradigm has brutally shifted, unfortunately. Nowadays, the “unrealistic” woman’s body – is the trim and toned one.
Okay, she didn’t get this body by accident, but it’s still a lot more realistic than weighing 250 pounds. Freepick.com/lyashenko
Have Americans gotten so lazy and complacent with an unhealthy way of living that being buff and lean is now considered unnatural, even freakish, especially among women?
Maria Kang does not need to apologize for her viral post in 2013 in which she’s looking lean and aerobically fit with her two preschoolers and baby.
She’s right: What IS our excuse?
Now if Kang had starved herself to look that way, then this means she was doing things very wrong.
An intense workout regimen plus portion control go a long way at creating a non-overweight, trained-looking body.
Non-sustainable dieting is NOT necessary to keep a healthy, fit and trim body.
The only thing unnatural about Maria Kang’s body in that post is her breasts, due to implants.
Obesity has now become so normalized that posts such as Maria Kang’s invoke accusations of body shaming, fat shaming and “unrealistic standards.”
Yet it’s perfectly okay for hundreds of very big women to promote obesity via social media, particularly Instagram and TikTok.
They deny it, but the nature of their photos and even captions strongly suggest otherwise.
The unnatural body is the obese one, not the lean and toned one.
It is EXTREMELY UNNATURAL AND UNREALISTIC to be as big as model Tess Holliday and many other morbidly obese Instagram stars such as Corissa Enneking and Sonalee Rashatwar who – whether they’ve outright admitted it or not – are aggressively pushing the normalization of morbid obesity.
What IS unnatural for the human body?
• Sitting as much as so many Americans do: up to eight hours a day (on the job, in a car, at home watching TV, reading or using a computer).
• Filling up every day on unnatural, sugary high-calorie foods that are literally available at the push of a button.
• America is a fat, sick country that feasts on unhealthy junk foods and spends too much time sitting.
Do not confuse commonality with what’s natural.
Do not equate unrealistic with uncommon.
You don’t see an obesity epidemic among other mammals in their natural habitat.
The exception is a few species such as bears, but their seasonal fat gain is to get them through months of hibernation.
And please, don’t say that elephants, rhinos and whales are obese.
That is their natural makeup, and their fat content serves a useful purpose in their survival.
We can’t say this about human obesity. A whale or elephant can swim and walk, respectively, for hours.
Few obese people over 40 can walk even one-quarter mile without discomfort and even having to take a rest.
Obese people who regularly do cardio exercise should have no problem walking 400 meters.
But when you compare obese people who NEVER exercise, with same-age non-overweight people who NEVER exercise – the smaller individuals will find it much easier to walk 400 meters, and this disparity becomes increasingly evident as the age goes up.
It’s so unnatural for bodies to get this way. Never mind the commonality. Michael Coghlan from Adelaide, Australia
• Obesity Is Unnatural Among Humans.
• Being Lean and Sculpted Is Not.
Promotion of Unrealistic Body Standards
Nobody screams when very overweight body-positive influencers post images and videos of themselves gorging on junk food.
But watch out for all the “fit shaming” when someone like Maria Kang posts a message.
There is nothing unrealistic about all the lean and sculpted moms on Instagram who promote intense weight workouts and high intensity interval training.
They also post their meals: No, not half an apple for lunch, but a FULL plate of nutrient-dense foods. Nothing unrealistic about that.
Please do not equate any of this with the pro-ana (anorexia promotion) movement or with YouTube stars such as Eugenia Cooney – who is literally emaciated.
The normalization of obesity needs to stop immediately.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
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Source: foxnews.com/lifestyle/fit-mom-maria-kang-apologizes-beauty-standard-breast-implants
How to Get Stronger Muscles to Lower Type 2 Diabetes Risk
If you’re scared you might develop type 2 diabetes, then you should be working to increase your muscle mass.
Bulking up is not necessary, but the more muscle tissue you have, the more protection you’ll have against developing a prediabetic state. (more…)
Can You Tell a Person’s Health by the Way They Look?
Body positive enthusiasts insist it’s impossible to tell a person’s health and fitness by their looks.
Diseases that Are Caused by Having a Lot of Muscle?
Have you been hearing lately that it’s not healthy to have a lot of muscle?
This isn’t the same as saying that a very muscular person can still be unhealthy. What’s being said is that the actual muscle development itself – can be unhealthy.
The topic that usually brings out this statement is that of obesity being unhealthy.
Perhaps as a subconscious way of softening their admonitions to the “healthy at every size” camp, fitness coaches and trainers then toss in, as an afterthought, something like, “In fact, it’s not just having a lot of fat that’s bad for you, but even having too much muscle can be bad for you!”
There is a popular YouTube personal trainer, who specializes in morbidly obese clients, who has made the statement several times that being heavy with a lot of muscle (rather than fat) can be unhealthy.
He cites the diseases (e.g., stroke, type 2 diabetes, some cancers) that excess body fat can cause, but not surprisingly, never produces a list of medical ailments that significant muscle mass can supposedly cause.
That’s because there aren’t any. But what does a family practitioner have to say about this?
“Just being very muscular is not a major risk — as long as it was done ‘naturally,’” says Susan L. Besser, MD, with Mercy Medical Center, Baltimore; Diplomate, American Board of Obesity Medicine and board certified by the American Board of Family Medicine.
Posts are adding up on social media that having “too much muscle” (whatever “too much” is) is bad for the body.
Muscularity will never negatively affect this woman’s breast, reproductive, heart, joint, bone, intestinal or brain health. Shutterstock/AXL
If you truly believe big muscles are unhealthy, you should peruse medical journals for the causes of the top 10 killer diseases. See what comes up. And what doesn’t.
On what grounds can hypertrophy be unhealthy?
Or is this just a statement used by fitness experts to sound more convincing or relatable to those members of the fat acceptance camp who never weight train?
This Isn’t About Dangerous Performance Enhancing Drugs
“Using performance enhancing drugs or steroids to achieve the muscles isn’t healthy,” says Dr. Besser. These drugs can result in serious side effects.
But steroid use isn’t what this is about.
It’s about the concept that simply having substantial muscle development itself is bad for the body.
Is there a circumstance under which bodybuilding CAN be bad for the body?
“On the other hand, if your bodybuilder is focusing on only one area of muscular development — at the very least, that is unbalanced muscle development and potentially unhealthy, as it stresses the rest of the body by being disproportionate,” says Dr. Besser.
Every so often there is that bodybuilder who neglects what he can’t frontally see in the mirror: triceps and hamstrings.
And we’ve all seen the man with impressive muscle development only in his upper body. Though he trains his legs, they are too “skinny” for the rest of his body.
But these imbalances cannot possibly lead to systemic disease. The “unhealthiness” of a muscle imbalance could lead to soreness, aches, stiffness and an increased risk of musculoskeletal injury.
But certainly the chicken legs on that bodybuilder, or the neglected triceps behind the protruding biceps, will never lead to diabetes, high cholesterol, heart disease, hypertension, GERD or fatty liver disease.
Though the pursuit of hypertrophy may result in an injury, muscle size itself will not raise this man’s risk of disease or sickness. Shutterstock/andrimka
Human Heart Not Designed to Support 300 Pounds
In general this is true. But what if the 300 pounds is on a very tall bodybuilder who has low body fat?
You cannot possibly compare this man to a 300 pound woman who’s 50 percent body fat and only 5’4.
© Lorra Garrick
Additionally, most bodybuilders are well under 300 pounds. Even Lou Ferrigno (former Mr. Universe who played the Hulk in the TV series “The Incredible Hulk”) was around 275 at a height of 6’5, which is very tall for a competitive bodybuilder.
You can’t compare the heart of morbidly obese model Tess Holliday with the heart of a 6’7 strongman athlete.
What about the typical gym rat with major hypertrophy?
He may be around 240 or 250 and have a low body fat percentage. He may appear to be 270 in a photo due to enormously developed muscle, but actually be only 220 because he stands only 5’8.
But remember, his heart is trained to efficiently respond to physical stress and isn’t surrounded by a gelatinous layer of yellow fat as would an obese person’s.
If the typical muscled gym rat “has a healthy lifestyle with a mostly whole food diet, gets good sleep and does aerobic exercise in addition to static exercises (muscle building) to keep his cardiovascular system healthy — he is not ‘unhealthy’ and isn’t at significantly increased risk — as long as he maintains his exercise routine,” explains Dr. Besser.
What about those gigantic men who hold world records in various strength feats?
If they ever develop heart disease, diabetes or cancer, have a heart attack or stroke – you can be assured that the amount of muscle mass played NO role in the development of these conditions.
In a reality show about record-holding strongmen performing new feats of strength, their diet was briefly discussed: 10,000 calories a day.
They were shown gorging on unhealthy food. Later in the episode one was shown smoking a cigar.
It’s habits such as these that are high risk factors for disease. The size of one’s biceps or quadriceps play no role in sickness.
• There is zero evidence that muscularity is “unhealthy.” A muscular person may have a health problem, but not because they are muscular.
• “That’s not healthy” applies to what a person puts INSIDE their body (e.g., excessive sodium, excessive sugar, trans fats, liquor, smoke).
Dr. Besser provides comprehensive family care, treating common and acute primary conditions like diabetes and hypertension. Her ongoing approach allows her the opportunity to provide accurate and critical diagnoses of more complex conditions and disorders.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified through the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained women and men of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
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Top image: Shutterstock/ALL best fitness is HERE
What a Dent in the Middle of the Tongue Means
When you stick your tongue out, do you see a dent near the middle?
Perhaps the dent or depression is there only when you stick out your tongue. (more…)
Plus Size Women: Don’t Be Offended by Workout Form Advice
Though it’s not known just how many plus-size influencers become irate when followers point out mistakes in their workout form and how to exercise with better technique, at least one made the news in late July, 2019: Whitney Way Thore.
Being that there are quite a few plus-size and even morbidly obese influencers, we have to believe that Thore isn’t the only one who became offended at followers or transient visitors to her Instagram account giving her advice on workout technique.
It’s logical to assume that most of these sincere givers of advice are personal trainers or very experienced with strength training.
Who wouldn’t welcome what seems like sensible advice? Now, if the advice sounds nutty, then of course, ignore it.
But if it makes you think, “Hmmm, that makes sense,” then why get upset?
As a former personal trainer, I myself wouldn’t mind some unasked-for advice on my deadlift form – being that I’ve been stuck at the same weight for months.
In a squat video posted by Thore, she even admitted to the unsteady form. This is kind of like a subtle way of seeking advice!
Yet she was offended. I read the advice; it was correct. And her form WAS bad.
Though she attributed this to her large stomach, this doesn’t mean she couldn’t benefit from some pointers!
Another plus-size influencer who expressed offense is Anna O’Brien. However, the weightlifting move she posted was that of a spontaneous decision to hold up several people at once.
A number of posts showed genuine concern over her knees and back with this stunt.
After posting snide responses to a few of these posts, O’Brien posted that she was blocking the unsolicited advice and warned that any future posters of such advice would get blocked.
Though O’Brien pointed out that the stunt was a whim and not a recurring routine, we have to wonder why the concern over her knees and back distressed her.
Plus-Size Influencers Are Not Unique
As far as being “criticized” for workout technique, plus-size Instagrammers are not unique.
Certainly, it should dawn upon them that MANY Instagrammers – from stick-thin to rippling with muscle, from young to old, from beginner to seasoned bodybuilder – have received unsolicited advice on their workout technique.
The two moves that get the most attention, as far as form, are the back squat and deadlift.
Deadlift
However, followers or visitors who just happen to be personal trainers will also easily spot poor technique in the weighted walking lunge, biceps curl and pushup.
Thore went as far as pointing out a (alleged) peculiar phenomenon: Fat people are criticized for not exercising, but then when they do, they are criticized.
Nobody criticizes fat people for embracing the concept of exercise.
But when a personal trainer or strength-and-conditioning coach spots poor form in a video – it’s their nature to post some advice.
This isn’t a criticism of the individual’s obesity. It’s merely some helpful tips!
Why is it difficult to believe that these same advice-givers would also offer some pointers to a thin person who’s executing poor or unsafe technique?
A personal trainer, coach or experienced strength-training enthusiast is either helpful or they’re not.
They’re looking at the form and technique, not the size of the person’s thighs or waist.
Nobody’s saying that plus-size people shouldn’t exercise. In fact, any fitness enthusiast will tell you that EVERY BODY needs to exercise.
If you’re a plus-size influencer who receives unsolicited advice on how to properly do a certain exercise – see this for what it actually is: helpful advice from an individual who’s passionate about fitness for any body.
That same person very likely gives out unsolicited advice to thinner people as well.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified through the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained women and men of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
Why Your Knee Keeps Hurting Even Though You’re Physically Fit
A physically fit person who regularly works out should not have recurring or chronic knee pain.
• Do you have a dull but annoying ache just underneath your knee cap? (more…)
Can a Root Canal Cause Facial Twitching?
If you’re experiencing facial twitching prior to a root canal, it can be explained by anxiety.
But what about twitching of your face after the root canal treatment? (more…)
